Day 12 - Paris

We had such a wonderful start in Paris yesterday, we were both very excited for our first full day in this amazing city. We started early with breakfast at the hotel and then made our way to the Musee d'Orsay.

We purchased a 3 day museum pass to use at multiple sights over the next few days. And then we spent several hours viewing the sculpture gallery and impressionist paintings - Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Sisley, and more! Today was September 10 and security and tensions were high as time approached the one year anniversary of September 11, 2001. There was a short terrorist scare in the Cezzanne exhibit as someone left a large black satchel on one of the chairs and did not come back to retrieve it after several requests over the public address system in multiple languages. Security basically cleared the entire wing of the museum. It was amazing and some-what comforting to see the great number of plain-clothed security which were on duty.

After the d'Orsay, we walked along the river to the Notre Dame Cathedral. We walked through the cathedral and then waited in line to climb to the top in the warm morning sun. We met a nice couple from Australia that had traveled some of the same places we had been. They kept us company throughout our climb to the top of Notre Dame and we took turns taking the standard tourist pictures of ourselves with the lovely backdrop of Paris.

From Notre Dame it was a short walk to the Sainte-Chapelle. Today was such a perfect day to visit this amazing cathedral, known for its extraordinary stained glass windows. We entered the small cathedral while the sun was covered by clouds. And just as we wandered into the middle of the room the clouds moved, revealing the sun, and filling the chapel with indescribable, warm light filtered through the multi-colored glass. As if on queue, every visitor present let out a gasp of awe and then we were all looking around the room smiling at each other and appreciating the wonder of the moment. Our visit to Sainte-Chapelle was short, but certainly memorable.

We took a series of metro trains across town to see the beautiful Basilique du Sacre-Coeur. On the way, we stopped in several shops along the crowded, bustling streets. We purchased souvenirs, some cliché, some not. And then we spent some time admiring the the incredible setting and architecture of the Sacre-Coeur.

After dodging the multitude of ketch vendors and grabbing a refreshing ice cream cone, we returned to the hotel for a short rest before venturing out to dinner. We knew that our previous evening's experience was going to be difficult to top, so we weren't too disappointed when we ended up eating at the chain restaurant Hippopotamus. After a quick and unexciting meal, we metro'd to the Arc de Triomphe and climbed to the top. We must have climbed over 1500 stairs today! From there we walked down to the Palais de Chaillot where there are wonderful evening views of the Eiffel Tower.